2013 Annual Banquet Speaker
Does Science Still Matter in America Today?
Dr. Kenneth R. Miller
Description: A remarkable number of the battles in America’s “culture wars” are now taking place in the context of science. These include conflicts over vaccination policy, stem cell research, global climate change, and especially over the teaching of evolution. I will argue that many of these struggles are only placeholders in a larger cultural conflict over the place of science and scientific reason in our society. As such, they present a clear and present danger to the scientific community, and to the way in which science itself is conducted. I will argue that effective science education holds the key to resolving these conflicts, and to restoring a productive consensus on the place of science in American society.
Kenneth R. Miller is Professor of Biology at Brown University. A New Jersey native (Rahway High School), he serves as an advisor on life sciences to the NewsHour, a daily PBS television program on news and public affairs, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Miller is coauthor, with Joseph S. Levine, of high school biology textbooks used by millions of students nationwide. In 2005 he served as lead witness in the trial on evolution and intelligent design in Dover, Pennsylvania. His popular book, Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution, addresses the scientific status of evolutionary theory and its relationship to religious views of nature. His latest book, Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul, addresses the continuing struggle over how evolution is to be understood in American society. His honors include the Presidential Citation of the American Institute of Biological Science (2005), the Distinguished Service Award of the National Association of Biology teachers (2008) and the AAAS Public Understanding of Science and Technology Award (2009). In 2011 the Society for the Study of Evolution honored him with the Stephen Jay Gould Prize for advancing the public understanding of evolution.
Kenneth R. Miller is Professor of Biology at Brown University. A New Jersey native (Rahway High School), he serves as an advisor on life sciences to the NewsHour, a daily PBS television program on news and public affairs, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Miller is coauthor, with Joseph S. Levine, of high school biology textbooks used by millions of students nationwide. In 2005 he served as lead witness in the trial on evolution and intelligent design in Dover, Pennsylvania. His popular book, Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution, addresses the scientific status of evolutionary theory and its relationship to religious views of nature. His latest book, Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul, addresses the continuing struggle over how evolution is to be understood in American society. His honors include the Presidential Citation of the American Institute of Biological Science (2005), the Distinguished Service Award of the National Association of Biology teachers (2008) and the AAAS Public Understanding of Science and Technology Award (2009). In 2011 the Society for the Study of Evolution honored him with the Stephen Jay Gould Prize for advancing the public understanding of evolution.